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Another milestone for Sid + some bad injury news |
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The Penguins defeated a team they were supposed to defeat. This is something you can’t take for granted this season. They were able to score four goals in a game which isn’t something that has happened for some time
Sid was Sid last night and was the spark the team needed because that’s what he does that’s who he is. He was in his office down low by the goal mouth.
For my money nobody in the history of the sport is as good down low as Crosby and he shows it time and time again. He’s so good at all the battling stuff, but when you combine it with his eye hand coordination and his situational awareness you get an unbeatable force. Plays like this he makes look routine and no big deal.
His second goal of the game he reached a milestone. His 12th 30 goal season of his career
This of course is an amazing accomplishment, but as Penguins fans know this number is lower than it should be due to the missed injury time and lockout during his prime. It would likely be his 14th such season. Here’s how he compares with other Penguins greats
He also tied former Penguins legend Jarome Iginla with 12 30 goal seasons.
There was another Crosby play worth noting. He flashed some of his former greatness when he took on the Blackhawks and attacked towards the goal while flashing some stickhandling and his unparalleled backhand shot. It’s something I wish he did more often because I still think he’s more than capable
Sid is one of the smartest players in the league and he is always calculating risk reward when making his decisions. This has led to more times where he’s curled off and found trailers, which is also a good play. I think given the Penguins struggles this year he could be a little more selfish and take some more chances and drive to the middle more often than he has. I realize at 36 it isn’t as easy, but he’s not any other 36 year old.
So that was the good from yesterday. The bad… Jake Guentzel is now on the IR with an upper body injury. He will be mandated to miss 10 games and 24 days. The earliest he can return is March 10th. The trade deadline is March 8th. This is problematic on multiple fronts. The first is that he is the Penguins second best forward and losing him almost guarantees the Penguins won’t have the juice to climb back into the playoff race even though stranger things have happened. The second is that the injury very much complicates his ability to be traded. Players have gotten traded on LTIR before. It is usually when the players are “retired” and the team trading them is paying another team to eat the salary while being compensated draft picks. The last active player I can think of off the top of my head that was traded on LTIR was when the Jets traded Evander Kane to the Sabres. In that situation Kane was out for the rest of the season. The Guentzel situation isn’t an identical comparison. So I think he can be traded and given he will be back during the regular season I’m willing to bet some teams would still be interested.
All that said, I still think re-signing him is the move. Every other move the team has made has pointed to a Guentzel extension being part of the plan. To re-sign him you are going to have to give him eight years in the 8-9M range. There were reports the Penguins came in under the eight years and offered in the ball park of six years and 8.5M per. At that point just give him the two extra years, whatever. There’s no replacing him. He’s a tremendous player. He’s Crosby’s best winger of his career. I feel like if you get rid of Jake you are swinging the door wide open for Sidney Crosby to finish his career elsewhere. If Crosby ever made the decision to leave the Penguins I would support him 100%. He’s earned that and more. I would still be working towards not making that a palatable choice for Crosby to make. Selfishly, I would very much want him, as well as Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, to finish their careers playing for one team.
The Penguins next game will be on Sunday. It is Jaromir Jagr night. Can’t wait.
Thanks for reading!
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